1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and a method for playing lottery games via an electronic network, and more particularly to a system and a method for operating or facilitating on-line state lottery games.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In traditional lottery games, lottery players walk into convenience retailers, manually fill out selection slips, and exchange cash or credit with a clerk, who then enters the selections into a lottery terminal. This lottery terminal electronically connects to a central lottery system which manages the lottery games. The central game system then issues a coded lottery ticket, and the lottery ticket is delivered to the lottery players through the local lottery terminal at the retailer. To play lottery games administered by governmental entities such as countries, states, provinces or multi-state lottery associations, lottery players are required to travel to retailers and sometimes wait in line to purchase lottery tickets.
Numerous interactive games on the Internet are now available. These include both games of skill or games of chance (wager) such as virtual casinos. However, lottery games such as lotteries offered by the governmental entities have not been made available on the Internet. One reason may be concern regarding security and fraud as to forged winning tickets. Also, it may be more difficult to verify play criteria such as the age or residence of the lottery players. If governmental entities' lottery tickets can be purchased by players over publicly accessible electronic or telephonic network such as the Internet, it can be anticipated that many more players will participate in the lottery. Many more tickets will be sold and awards will be much larger. If online lottery play of a governmental lottery is possible, other features such as subscription play wherein players subscribe to a periodic play of same numbers can be added, thereby making lottery gaming even more attractive.
Therefore, a need exists for a lottery agent system which facilitates lottery play of governmental lotteries via an electronic network such as through the Internet. A need also exists for a lottery agent system which makes available through the electronic network the purchase of governmental lottery tickets and facilities additional features such as subscription play and instant play.
The U.S. Wire Act restricts the purchase of lottery tickets over the Internet without knowingly accepting information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers from persons located outside the state at the time of purchase. Pending U.S. legislation proposes rules to permit intrastate internet wagering provided state regulations include reasonably designed verification of age and location to prevent access to minors and persons located outside the state and appropriate data security standards to prevent access by unverified persons whose age and current location do not satisfy state laws or regulations.
Existing geolocation technology relates an IP Address to a geographic location. However, since IP addresses are registered to a country, geolocation technology can determine a country, but state-level accuracy is limited. Proprietary databases claim to determine a more precise geography at a city or regional level. Geolocation limitations prevent absolute assurance of in state location.
Some of the limitations of using geolocation technology are insufficient accuracy and circumvention. The best level of accuracy stated by self-proclaimed market leader, Quova, is 94%. Geolocation software can be circumvented easily where a player can access the Internet from any state by using an Internet access dial-in number in the desired state. AOL routes their Internet traffic in a complex manner that confounds geolocation software. They cannot determine the state from which an AOL user originates. In Q3 2005, AOL had a 21.4% market share.